MP 7,1 Powering on the Mac Pro remotely

[chfilm]

Hi,
I recently moved my Mac Pro 2019 to an office but sometimes need to be able to remotely access it for simple tasks like sending a missing file or so. I was told I could use a HomeKit smart plug and set in system preferences under energy savings that it would reboot after a power outage - and by doing so make it boot from home to then be able to log into it somehow.

so I got my smart plug and set everything accordingly but nothing happens when I switch the power off and on on the plug. Am I missing something?

 

[arche3]

I think the mac needs to power off suddenly and then have power detected again???

You can leave the mac pro on in sleep. And have it wake up when it detects network traffic from remote desktop.

 

[rondocap]

You could also consider a NAS that can auto sync files on your Mac Pro and have them available on your own cloud from anywhere to access, that’s the best way to do it if it’s something you do often

 

[goMac]

I think the mac needs to power off suddenly and then have power detected again???

You can leave the mac pro on in sleep. And have it wake up when it detects network traffic from remote desktop.

Correct. Basically the feature is if the Mac *loses power unexpectedly while it was on* it will start back up again. Probably not the way you want to run it. Basically you'd have to cut power while it was booted which could eventually be the path to data loss or corruption.

Wake on network traffic is generally the right answer. But it will mean sleeping instead of shutdown.

 

[flygbuss]

You can schedule boot and / or sleep in energy preferences. This would be a work around of course but might help in the meantime.
For example boot weekdays 9pm and shutdown 11pm. Then the machine is running in case you need to login to get some work done.

 

[chfilm]

Correct. Basically the feature is if the Mac *loses power unexpectedly while it was on* it will start back up again. Probably not the way you want to run it. Basically you'd have to cut power while it was booted which could eventually be the path to data loss or corruption.

Wake on network traffic is generally the right answer. But it will mean sleeping instead of shutdown.

Argh, as I feared! Strange that system administrators would give me this advice, seems so dangerous to just cut the machine‘s power.. if I use the „wake every day at 9“ setup (huge waste of energy), and then let it go to sleep- what would be the best way to access it remotely and to wake it up?

 

[shadow_999]

I would say

MicroBot Push

Make Dumb Devices Smart! Control your favorite electronic devices using a smartphone whether you are home or away.

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[arche3]

I would say

MicroBot Push

Make Dumb Devices Smart! Control your favorite electronic devices using a smartphone whether you are home or away.

microbot.is

Brilliant. !!!

 

[timerickson]

Why do you need it to be off instead of just sleeping? This is really easy to do with Edovia Screens: https://edovia.com/en/screens-mac/

But this works by waking from sleep. Just set the Mac to auto-sleep with a login screen, Screens can then wake it from sleep and you enter your password remotely.

 

[chfilm]

Why do you need it to be off instead of just sleeping? This is really easy to do with Edovia Screens: https://edovia.com/en/screens-mac/

But this works by waking from sleep. Just set the Mac to auto-sleep with a login screen, Screens can then wake it from sleep and you enter your password remotely.

Ok, I guess sleep mode it is then.. frustrating cause sometimes I’m not in the office for days.

 

[AppleGeezer]

The MacPro7,1 is one of two shipping Apple systems that support lights-out-management (LOM), which is designed for these sorts of use cases (remote power up/shutdown/reboot, even if the system is in a hung state). If the Mac Pro in question is a company system managed by an MDM, you (or your sysadmin, more likely) might be able to use your company's MDM to remotely power up the system. See https://support.apple.com/guide/mdm/lights-out-management-payload-settings-mdm580cf25bc/web

The Xserve had similar features back in the day, but I have no firsthand experience with the modern version. In addition to some network infrastructure requirements, whether it's available at all will depend on who your MDM vendor is and whether they've bothered to implement it.

 

[chfilm]

The MacPro7,1 is one of two shipping Apple systems that support lights-out-management (LOM), which is designed for these sorts of use cases (remote power up/shutdown/reboot, even if the system is in a hung state). If the Mac Pro in question is a company system managed by an MDM, you (or your sysadmin, more likely) might be able to use your company's MDM to remotely power up the system. See https://support.apple.com/guide/mdm/lights-out-management-payload-settings-mdm580cf25bc/web

The Xserve had similar features back in the day, but I have no firsthand experience with the modern version. In addition to some network infrastructure requirements, whether it's available at all will depend on who your MDM vendor is and whether they've bothered to implement it.

Sounds interesting! But I am my own company and I have no idea what MDM is ... ?

 

[startergo]

Here is one solution:

PiKVM - Open and inexpensive IP-KVM on Raspberry Pi

PiKVM an easy and inexpensive DIY IP-KVM on Raspberry Pi to control remote machines: Full HD, mouse, Mass Storage Drive, VNC, IPMI and much more out of the box. Most modern KVM over IP ever!

pikvm.org